Syllabus and Schedule

This is a
tentative syllabus and schedule. Topics, reading
assignments, and due dates are subject to change.
All projects/papers are due by 11:59:59pm on the day listed by
electronic submission. All written problem sets are due by
the start of class.

By default, the readings refer
to Russell and Norvig.
* Note that Prof. Eaton may be on travel for one or more days
during these weeks, subject to change.

Course Policies

As you will discover, I am a proponent of two-way communication
and I welcome feedback during the semester about the course. I am
available to answer student questions, listen to concerns, and
talk about any course-related topic (or otherwise!). Come to
office hours! This helps me get to know you. You are welcome to
stop by and chat. There are many more exciting topics to talk
about that we won't have time to cover in-class.

Whenever you e-mail me, be sure to use a meaningful subject line
and include the phrase "CS372" or "PHIL372" at the beginning of
that line. Your e-mail will catch my attention and I will respond
quicker if you do this. I make an effort to respond to e-mails
within 24 hours on weekdays and 48 hours on weekends.

Although computer science work can be intense and solitary, please
stay in touch with me, particularly if you feel stuck on a topic
or project and can't figure out how to proceed. Often a quick
e-mail, phone call or face-to-face conference can reveal solutions
to problems and generate renewed creative and scholarly energy. It
is essential that you begin assignments and projects early, since
we will be covering a variety of challenging topics in this
course.

Grading

Your grade will be based upon five
problem sets, two exams, and either (CMSC) 5 projects or (PHIL) 5
papers.

At the end of the semester, final grades will be calculated as a
weighted average of all grades according to the following weights:

Midterm Exam:

10%

Final Exam:

20%

5 Problem Sets:

25% (5% each)

5 Projects/Papers:

45% (9% each)

Total:

100%

Incomplete grades will be given only for verifiable medical
illness or other such dire circumstances.

All graded work will receive a percentage grade between 0% and
100%. Here is how the percentage grades will map to final
letter grades:

Rounded Percentage

Letter grade

Rounded Percentage

Letter grade

97% -100%

A+ (4.0)

77% - 79%

C+ (2.3)

93% - 96%

A (4.0)

73% - 76%

C (2.0)

90% - 92%

A- (3.7)

70% - 72%

C- (1.7)

87% - 89%

B+ (3.3)

67% - 69%

D+ (1.3)

83% - 86%

B (3.0)

60% - 66%

D (1.0)

80% - 82%

B- (2.7)

0% - 59%

F (0.0)

The instructor reserves the right to adjust the percentage ranges
for each letter grade upward in your favor.

Submission and Late Policy

All
work
must be turned in either in hard-copy or electronic submission,
depending on the instructions given in the assignment.
E-mailed submissions will not
be accepted. Extensions will be given only in the case of
verifiable medical excuses or other such dire circumstances, if
requested in advance.

Late submissions will receive a penalty of 10% for every 0-24 hours
it is past the due date and time (e.g., assignments turned in 25 hrs
late will receive a penalty of 20%).

Problem Sets

All
problem set solutions must be typeset. Any solutions requiring math
or proofs must use proper mathematical notation. Similarly, graphs
should be well-constructed with all axes properly labeled. I highly
recommend the use of the LaTeX text formatting system, but you can
use any program capable of producing proper mathematical notation.
The bottom of this page contains links to good
LaTeX websites and links to example files.

All solutions are required to be your own, individual work. I
encourage you to discuss methods, concepts, and assignments with
anyone; however, the solutions turned in must be your own work. A
good rule of thumb is to be alone when you sit down to actually
generate solutions to the assigned problems, and to not show your
solutions to anyone else.

At the top of your submission, you must include a clear
statement specifying the source of any assistance you received
on this assignment. This includes any websites you
consulted, other students with whom you discussed any of the
problems, etc. If you did not receive any assistance, you
must say so. Submissions without this statement will be
penalized.

Exams

There will be two exams in this course. The exams will be
closed-book and closed-notes. They will cover material from
lectures, homeworks, and assigned readings (including topics not
discussed in class). So, keep up with those readings!In the case of verifiable medical excuses or other
such dire circumstances, arrangements must be made with the
instructor for a makeup exam before the test date.

Study Groups

I want to encourage you to discuss the material and work together
to understand it. Here are my thoughts on collaborating with other
students:

The readings and lecture topics are group work. Please
discuss the readings and associated topics with each other.
Work together to understand the material. I highly recommend
forming a reading group to discuss the material -- we will
explore many challenging ideas and it helps to have multiple
people working together to understand them.

It is fine to discuss the topics covered in the homeworks, to
discuss approaches to problems, and to sketch out general
solutions. However, you MUST write up the homework answers,
solutions, and programs individually. You are not permitted to
share specific solutions, mathematical results, program code,
knowledge representations, experimental results, etc. If you
made any notes or worked out something on a white board with
another person while you were discussing the homework, you
shouldn't use those notes while writing up your answer,
however tempted you may be to do so.

You are fully permitted to (and should!) discuss the project
with members of your team. I also encourage you to work
outside of your team to understand the other topics in the
course. However, remember that there will be a competition in
parts of the project, so you don't want to give other teams
any of your good ideas!

Under ABSOLUTELY NO circumstances should you share computer
code with another student outside of your project team.
Similarly, you are not permitted to use or consult code found on
the internet for any of your assignments.

Exams and papers, of course, must be your own individual
work.

If you have any questions as to what types of collaborations are
allowed and which are dishonest, please ask me before you
make a mistake.

Electronic Devices

I have no problem with you using computers or tablets to take
notes or consult reference materials during class. Tempting
though it may be, please do not check e-mail or visit websites
that are not relevant to the course during class. It is a
distraction, both for you and (more importantly) for your fellow
classmates. Please silence your phones and computers when
you enter class.

Reference Links

Software

The Weka
Machine Learning Toolkit, a widely-used open-source ML
toolkit built in java. You should download your own copy for
either Linux, Windows, or Mac. Since it's java, you can
download it to your home directory and run it.

The AMS maintains several widely used extensions of
LaTeX. The amsmath
package provides just about every math symbol you can
imagine, and more.

Simplified
LaTeX, a beginner's guide with a nice tutorial
section at the beginning.

In order to run LaTeX on your own computer, you will
need to install TeX and LaTeX. A number of freeware and
shareware implementations are available. You can look
through the CTAN or LaTeX Project websites above for
pointers. If you're running Windows, you might want to
try the MikTeX
implementation. Excellent LaTeX-friendly text editors
for Windows include WinEdt
or TeXnicCenter